Qualifications and Destinations of Northern Ireland School Leavers 2015/16

The Department of Education has published data on the qualifications and destinations of school leavers for the 2015/16 year.

This statistical bulletin presents an analysis of the GCSE and A-level qualifications and destinations of pupils leaving post-primary schools in 2015/16.

Key points• The proportion of school leavers achieving at least five GCSEs at grades A* – C or equivalent has increased by 8.5 percentage points from five years ago, from 73.2% in 2010/11 to 81.7% in 2015/16.

• At 67.7%, the proportion of school leavers achieving at least five GCSEs at grades A* – C or equivalent including GCSE English and maths has increased by 1.7 percentage points since 2014/15 (66.0%) and by 8.2 percentage points since 2010/11 (59.5%).

• The proportion of free school meal entitled school leavers achieving at least five GCSEs at grades A* – C or equivalent including GCSE English and maths increased by 3.5 percentage points from 41.3% in 2014/15 to 44.8% in 2015/16.

• The proportion of school leavers achieving three or more A-levels at grades A* – C or equivalent was 38.4% in 2015/16, an increase of 2.8 percentage points from five years ago (35.6% in 2010/11).

• The proportion of school leavers continuing on to Institutions of Higher Education has increased slightly to 42.9% in 2015/16. Overall, 95.8% of school leavers were recorded by their school as entering Education, Employment or Training.

The full statistical bulletin can be found on the Department of Education website here.